There is a point in the journey when you realise, no matter how many people are around you, how much support you have, that you have to make this journey alone. What is important is that people don't forget you are making it. It doesn't matter if they live a mile away or a hundred miles away. What was important to me was that they just rang, consistently, to say, 'Hi, I was thinking of you. Hope you're going OK'. Even if it's just a message left on a machine, a note under the door, it means they are there for you, on your lonesome journey.
I was lucky to be able to return the favour of 'just being there' for a friend whose husband was diagnosed with lymphoma. Somehow, it meant I could be a better friend, because I knew what she needed - to know I hadn't forgotten the interminable journey they were making.
So just be there for someone - consistently - never forget that while you go about your daily business, and life everywhere else goes on, we are still plodding on along that lonely path. These are the people who most helped me through, and the ones who have become firmer friends for it.
--Sharyn
